New to Bschool process, need advice.

Question

Hi all,

I found this site after posting on Businessweek, and I think this may be a better place to ask questions. First, for the sake of remaining anonymous, I'm sorry if i'm too vague on some things. Let me introduce myself:

I graduated in 2006 from a well-known public uni with a 3.2 gpa. Unfortunately I'm the only one in my family to graduate from college. This is NO disrespect to my parents, who had the foresight to raise me right. Born and raised in NY (Brooklyn stand up!) moved to LA in high school. Since graduation i've been working at an online media outlet in Hollywood. So i've been here for almost 2 years. I help oversee operations, so basically I just make sure the creatives don't waste all our money on booze, and don't upset our parent company too much. I love working here, but unfortunately for me this town really is driven by the creatives. So I'd like to try my hand at something new. I plan on applying next year.

As far as leadership, yeah I lead a bunch of crazy, half-drunk people to their desks everyday. In college I started a hiphop dance studio for teens. I also played Div.1 basketball (shouldn't say played, more like watched from the bench lol.)

The good thing about being in LA is you get to see people take huge risks. The kind of risk it takes to choose UCLA over Harvard or film school over a really, really good law school. That being said, I don't think i have the stats for any top 5, but i'm not sure if I even want to try. I know prestige and perception is important for opening doors, but in my line of work Ivy League grads are looked down upon. And from what i've seen so far, students that apply there have extreme elitist attitudes bordering on paranoia (hopefully i'm wrong). But I'm interested in pursuing Turnaround Management/Consulting, an extreme career change. I like the idea of fixing broken companies. So am I naive to think a top 15-30 school will get me there? Anyone here involved in this line of work? What schools are best for me?

I guess I'm looking for direction from the experienced ones. Sorry for the long post.

lanter1 · Answer

1. Study hard for the GMAT-use gmat club forums, princeton review, kaplan, and the manhattan series

2. Research schools that meet your consulting goal. Not just in consulting but schools that place students in positions with firms that do turnaround business.

3. Start early...now for class of 2011.

4. Write well written intriguing essays that allow you to market yourself effectively.

5. Visit schools of interest.

kryzak · Answer

lanter1 has great tips! Here are some more:

Talk to recruiters and industry people in the Turnaround Management/Consulting and ASK THEM which schools they like to hire from. Then research those schools and figure out if the culture and clubs and career placement is what you're looking for.

I don't know enough about turnaround management, but for GM and consulting in the 15-30 range, you can't go wrong with UCLA, Duke, Michigan, Virginia... I'm not as familiar with schools outside of the UE/E area, so someone else may have to help you there.

aaudetat · Answer

Here's another:

pick up Montauk's book on getting into top b-schools. that will give you an idea of what the game is all about.

jaymonk · Answer

thanks everyone! yea i was looking for starter books and saw montauk's name come up. i'll check it out.

chouchou · Answer

Hey, I know this is a little off topic but I do consulting, and getting my foot in the door required a major career change for me as well. One thing that really helped me nail my interviews was doing the consulting case study problems in the "Wetfeet" guides. I highly, highly, recommend their case study problems. Sure, consulting companies care about prestige, but they care about your ability to effectively apply logic even more.

rajpdsouza · Answer

Glad to see you are started on the process already. Definitely start visiting schools and start studying/taking your GMAT. Maybe if you wanted to really get ahead you could start working on ideas for Why MBA, Why now, short-term and long-term goals essays.

Don't know much about the field you are interested in, but as kry said, ask around. I'm sure you'll get a list of schools that fits your goals.

Don't know much about the field you are interested in, but as kry said, ask around. I'm sure you'll get a list of schools that fits your goals.

jaymonk · Answer

really great advice! i checked out some websites - looks like UCLA, Columbia, Duke, Kellogg has some great professors in the Turnaround field. my question for consultants...i think i'm ready to jump into the field pre-MBA, but I have a pretty mediocre GPA and no relevant experience

. So i'm interested in boutique/regional firms that aren't so competitive. I'm a big city guy so NY/LA/SF/DC/CHI are ideal. Anyone know of any good niche websites or books to look at? Again, thanks for the advice.

chouchou · Answer

My company is a niche one. Niches are particularly good if you have experience within a specific industry (consulting for the software industry, consulting for the biotech industry, etc.) You can use google to try to find boutique consulting companies, but chances are, they are so small that you're really going to have to find them by networking. When i started job hunting, i didn't know  anyone  in business. plus i had no business experience (although i did have industry-related experience, so I had to market myself with that). What i did was work towards my goal from two ends: one end was networking, joining professional organizations, and attending conferences in order to meet people and get the word out. The other end was practicing my case questions. It worked out because by the time i landed an interview, I was already prepared. Hope it works for you!

aaudetat · Answer

Another way might be to look at business schools located in (or very near) your target cities. If the schools list their recruiting companies - or maybe the consulting club would - you might find local boutique firms. There are some biotech consulting groups that are located around here, and they recruit with us and are listed in our career reports.

New to Bschool process, need advice.

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